mathman
You gonna love those Vandersteen 2ces
! They are the champions at imaging.
If you are thinking of spending 2-3 kilo bucks for a receiver, look into the
B&K AVR505 or AVR 507. I'm not sure what their price is now, but I think it is in your range. B&K's separate preamp/processors and amplifiers are among the best at any price. They make all their products in the US and their customer service is excellent.
I'm told that their AV receivers share most if not all of their pre/pro features with B&K's top of the line preamp/processor, the Reference 50. That alone makes the B&K recievers a great deal.
The receiver's amps are rated at a conservative 150 watts/channel - plenty for your Vandersteens. If you later add an external amp (a 2-channel amp for example) you can have the receiver's internal power supply altered so that all the power goes to drive the other remaining channels.
The unique and useful features of these models are too many to list here, but they include the ability to equalize bass response in the 20-200 Hz range. There is an internal tone generator that produces individual bass frequencies, letting you measure in-room response with an SPL meter. With knowledge where the worst bass peaks are, you can then construct customized notch filters with definable frequencies, width, and amplitude to filter out the peaks and level out in-room bass response. Although other competing models may have similar features, I have never seen another system that worked so well at bass management.
True, they lack HDMI swithching. Most hi end producers do lag behind the major Japanese manufacturers in the very latest features. But HDMI switching is all about convenience and has nothing to do with quality sound.
